Texas, Dallas, United States: Nguyen Anh Minh and Wu Qiyou continued their bids for glory at the 77th US Junior Amateur with contrasting victories in the Round of 64.
While Vietnam’s Anh Minh eased past American Nicholas Brooks 4&3 at Trinity Forest Golf Club, China’s Wu produced a dramatic comeback to edge Korean Lim Tae-young at the 19th hole.
Wu appeared to be heading for defeat as he trailed three down with four holes to play. But he won the 15th and 16th to reduce the deficit to one.
After halving the short 17th in pars, Wu kept his hopes alive with a birdie four on the 18th to get back to all square. He then completed a remarkable escape act by winning the first extra hole to progress to the next round.
Joining Anh Minh and Wu in the Round of 32 are China’s Gu Liangliang, Hou Zenghao and Jiang Minbao and Thailand’s Ajalawich Anantasethakul.
Gu ousted Canadian Alex Zhang, two-up, Hou defeated Mexican Gabriel Derbez Torres one-up, while Jiang got the better of another Mexican, Luis Eboli, two-up. Ajalawich triumphed one-up against American Grady Millar.
Making their exit in the Round of 64 were China’s Gu Hongtao, Indonesian Rayhan Latief, Vietnam’s Ho Anh Huy, Thai Lapassaporn Liberto Heras-Gomez, Singapore’s Troy Storm and Hong Kong’s William Lisle.
Latief went down 8&7 to left-hander Tyler Watts, a member of the US National Junior Team (USNJT). Watts won the first six holes and shot the equivalent of four-under over the 11 holes.
Lapassaporn put up a brave performance against American Tyler Mawhinney, the 2025 US Amateur Four-Ball champion (with Will Hartman) and USNJT member. All square through 17, Lapassaporn was eliminated when Mawhinney rolled in a 15-foot birdie on the closing hole.
A total of 13 different countries were represented in match play led by the United States with 44. China had five, followed by Mexico (three), Thailand and Vietnam (two each), and Indonesia, Colombia, England, Korea, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada (one apiece).
In an intriguing Round of 32 contest scheduled for Thursday morning, Anh Minh will take on Gu. The two were team-mates in the International Team at last year’s Junior Presidents Cup.
